1. Field of the Invention
The present invention deals with the field of devices utilized for candling eggs. Candling eggs has been performed for many years in order to accurate determine that an egg includes a valuable embryo such that it will ultimately yield a chick. The best manner of making this determination is to pass light through an egg. If the egg is opaque the egg contains an embryo. However, if the egg is clear this is an indication that no embryo has developed and the egg can be otherwise processed or discarded.
Such candling operations have been done manually for many years, however, automated candling systems have recently been developed. Normally it is necessary during manually candling for the candling operator to be positioned above the eggs traveling upon a conveyor with a light below the conveyor passing upwardly through the eggs. With this configuration the observing candler operator is normally located within a dark enclosure above the conveyor to enhance accuracy in candling. Recently automated systems have been developed for candling, however, none disclose the method and apparatus of the present invention which utilizes the analysis of the digital video camera image recorded during candling to allow removal of infertile eggs with a subsequent downstream re-introduction of fertile eggs into the openings provided when the infertile eggs are moved.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the current state-of-the-art the speed of candling is one of the most important considerations necessary and incident to a candling system. Many automated systems use high speed egg movement with multiple observers attempting to remove as many of the clear or infertile eggs which they can locate. Some at tempts have been made to use still photographs for analyzing whether an egg is fertile or infertile. Such systems have proved inadequate especially in view of the high speed egg processing machinery available today.
It is also imperative that the trays of eggs be completely filled with fertile eggs and that no infertile eggs be included therein. This is true because all such eggs are normally fed to an inoculation station where they are inoculated against disease normally within two and four weeks after being dropped and gathered. The inoculation medium and the inoculation step both require time and significant expense and for this reason it is best that eggs being transferred to this inoculation stage be arranged in fully filled rows of fertile only eggs. The present invention provides a means for achieving this desired result not possible heretofore as prior art.